Burner system for heavy oils



Jan. 4, 1966 mm 3,227,203

BURNER SYSTEM FOR HEAVY OILS Original Filed Sept. 4, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. 50

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INVENTOR George E O/berf ATTORNEY 1956' s. F. DIB ERT BURNER SYSTEM FOR HEAVY OILS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed Sept. 4, 1963 INVENTOR George F Diber/ ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,227,203 a BURNER SYSTEM FOR HEAVY OILS George F. Dibert, 8335 SE. 7th Ave., Portland, Oreg. Continuation of application Ser.. No. 306,492, Sept. 4, 1963. This application Feb. 15, 1965, Ser. No. 436,413 14 Claims. (Cl. 158-36) permits the latter to utilize heavy oil and crude oil of any degree of lightness or heaviness, and to utilizesuch oils in residential or home heating, commercial heating and even directly in oil fields.

A further object of this invention is to provide a burner system for heavy oils which will make heavy oils usable in locations where only refi ned, light oils have been conventionally usable, ;to thereby considerably lower the cost of the fuel for the burner system over the cost of light oils.

A further object of this invention is to provide an oil burner system that is an improvement over that disclosed in applicants copending application Ser. No. 339,839 filed J an. 110, 1964, as a continuation of Ser. ,No, 83,856 filed Dec. 27, 1960, both now abandoned.

With the above and related objects in view, this invention consists in the details of construction and combination of parts, as will be more fully understood'from the following description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view, partly in section, of one form of oil burner system of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a similar view of another form of this invention.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged,- fragmentary sectional View of one form of burner tube, heat exchange chamber, oil pres: sure conduits and associated parts, as shown generally in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a similar enlarged b.u t more fragmentary sectional view of another form of burner tube, heat exchange chamber, oil pressure conduits and some associated parts, as shown generallyin FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of still another type of heat exchange chamber and somejassociated parts.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an electric circuit for the control of oil feed to the spray head of theburner.

There is shown at 10 the ,oil burnersystem of this invention as particularly intended for the burning of a heavy oil, such as No. 5 oil, for commercial or residential use. This system 10 includes a heavy oil feed conduit 12 conducting the heavy oil from any suitable source of supply, such as an oil tank or the like (not shown) to a preheater tank 14. The oil in this preheater tank may be kept at a pre-determined set temperature by any desired or convenient heating means, one such heating means being illustrated as being an electric resistanceheating wire 16 coiled .about'the inner wall of the tank 14 adjacent the space filled by the insulation 18 of tank 14 and connected to a thermostatically operated switch 20 connected to an electric conduit 22 from any suitable source of electricity and controlled by a thermostat 24 exposed to the temperature of the oil in the tank 14.

The burner system 10 utilizes a conventional light oil burner which includes a burner tube 26 having an open nozzle end 28 at one end, and connected at its other end to a source of controllable air pressure, such as a conventional blower 30 activated by an electric motor 32. Also forming part of this light oil burner system 10 is a conventional commercially available light oil pump 38 (one suitable, available pump being that known as a Sund, strand fuel unit, manufactured by Sundstrand Machine Tool Co., Hydraulic Division, Rockford, Illinois). The pump 38 is provided with an oil reservoir 40 on its inlet side and is operated by the motor 32. Although heavy oil is used in this system 10, the light oil pump 38 is suitable because the oil reservoir 40 connected to the inlet side thereof is connected to the preheater tank 14, by thermosiphonic, convection circuit conduits 44 and 46, the conduit 44 conducting heated oil from the top of preheater tank 14 to the reservoir 40, and the conduit 46 returning the oil from the reservoir 40 back through collector 72 and conduit 76 to the bottom of the preheater tank 14 for reheating. The oil in reservoir 40 is thus maintained at a temperature that keeps its viscosity equal to or better than the viscosity of the light oil for which the pump 38 is intended, and also keeps the pump warm, so that, when the pump 38 is operated as hereinafter disclosed, the oil will flow readily from reservoir 40 through the pump and the sequentially operated parts.

Electricity for operating the blower and pump motor 32 is supplied by an electrical conductor 48 from a suitable source of electricity through any desirable control system, such as a use thermostat controlled switch 50 the thermostat (not shown) of which is located in the area or location being served by the oil system 10. Such use thermostat of this switch may be a room thermostat for space heating, a hot water thermostat, a thermostat located in a layer of crude oil in a crude oil separator tank, or for any other purpose. In this form of burner system 10, the top of the reservoir 40 is plugged as at 52. On the outlet side of oil pump 38 there is provided a pressure bypass valve 54. A first oil pressure circuit from valve 54 is provided by an oil conduit 56 extending through the burner tube 2-6 and connecting through a coil 58 extending about and heating a spray head housing 60. Threaded or otherwise secured into this housing 60 is a conventional restricted spray head 62 on which is mounted a conventional dribbleproof valve 64 preventing flow of oil fluid therethrough until a pre-determined oil pressure is attained. (Such dribble-proof valve 64, here shown only schematically, is readily available on the market, one such valve being on the market as Honeywell V 5000.)

The spray head housing heating coil 58 is then connected by a conduit 66 to the front end of a heat exchange chamber 68 located in the burner tube 26 and extending rearwardly a substantial distance in the burner tube 26 from adjacent the spray head housing 60. At its rear, the heat exchange chamber 68 is connected by conduit 70 through foreign fluid collector 72 in the form shown in FIG. 1, or 74 in the form shown in FIG. 2, and then through a short conduit 76 back to the preheater tank 14. The foreign fluid thus collected and thus separated from the circuit may be natural gas or air, water, natural gasoline, or any other fluid that may also be present. On the top of foreign fluid collector 72 in FIG. 1 there is provided a tap valve 78 manually operable from time to time to permit the escape of gas or air or other fluids lighter than oil. At the bottom of both foreign fluid collectors 72 and 74 there is provided a tap valve 80 for manual operation from time to time to drain off water or other foreign fluids heavier than the oil. In FIG. 2, the collector 74 also servesas a heavy fuel oil feed conduit from the source of supply, and the air or gas present is thus returned to the source of supply.

Also connected to the pressure bypass valve 54 of pump 38 is a conduit 84 for a second pressure circuit, the conduit extending through the oil in the heat exchange chamber 68 to the spray head housing 60 to force oil through the spray head 62 and the dribble-proof valve 64 to be ignited and burned. Connected to the conduit 84, between the end of heat exchange chamber 68 and spray head housing 60 is a bypass conduit 86 which leads through a solenoid operated normally open valve 88 back through collector 72 to the preheater tank 14. The pressure bypass valve 54 is so arranged that when solenoid valve 88 is open, only the excess oil from the pump flows through conduit 56. The solenoid valve 88 is connected at 90 through the thermostat controlled switch 34 and electric lines 36 to the terminals of a source of electric supply. The switch 34 is connected at 92 to a thermostat bulb 94, located where it is influenced by the temperature of the oil either at the spray head 62 or at some point of predictable lower temperature. Thus, the bulb may be placed at the coil 58 or at some point along the oil return path of conduit 66, heat exchange chamber 68 and conduit 70, but not so close to preheater tank 14 as to be influenced by its elevated temperature. In the preferred embodiment illustrated, the bulb is placed in heat conductive relationship with the front end of the heat exchanger chamber 68. However, the bulb should not be placed ahead of coil 58 because the oil may be unpredictably hotter than at the coil and thus may cause premature or otherwise faulty burner operation. Of course, the set control temperature for the bulb 94 will depend on where it is to be located and will be such as to maintain the temperature of the oil through spray head pressure feed conduit 84 at the optimum temperature.

In operation, in the form disclosed in FIG. 1, the thermostat controlled switch 20 is set to maintain the preheater tank at the optimum temperature, and the thermosiphonic convection circuit through the pump reservoir 40 is maintained continuously to keepthe pump 38 Warm. When the use thermostat of switch 50 calls for heat, the blower and pump motor 32 starts and thus actuates the blower 30 and pump 38, and provides the two pressure circuits from the valve 54 through the heat exchange conduit 56, coil 58, heat chamber 68 and return conduit 70, and through the spray head pressure feed line 84 and bypass conduit 86; solenoid valve 88 remains open until the temperature of oil at the spray head 62 has risen to the optimum pre-set temperature. This pressure cycling of oil continues until oil at the spray head 62 reaches a pre-determined temperature at which it is readily ignitable. When the pre-set temperature has been reached, thermostat bulb 94 causes its switch 34 to activate the solenoid operated normallyopen valve 88 to closed position, thus closing off the bypass conduit 86, and the pump pressure then forces oil through the spray head 62 past the dribble-proof valve 64 to be ignited and burned, ignition being provided by any conventional well-known means (not shown), the ignition means being activated by switch 50.

Thus, heavy oils heated by the preheater tank 14 provide means for keeping the light oil pump warm and also render the oil readily ignitable and as free flowing as much lighter and much more expensive oils. Also, the circulation of oil through the fuel feed conduit 84 and its bypass 86 back to the preheater tank 14 until the solenoid valve 88 is closed serves to flush out the fuel feed conduit at every start, which is very desirable if the oil is dirty or has heavy wax content.

In the form of oil burner system shown at 100 in FIG. 2, which system is particularly useful in the oil fields as the source of heat for separator tanks, the same reference numbers have been applied to all parts that are identical in construction and operation, and different parts and differences in operation will now be described. A second circuit oil pressure feed conduit 104 is connected from the valve 54 on the pump 38 to the spray head housing 60, and a normally closed solenoid valve is interposed in this conduit at 106, but is set to be opened by the control switch 34, rather than be closed as is the solenoid valve 88 in the form in FIG. 1. When the optimum temperature has been reached, valve 106 is opened to permit the pump 38 to force oil under pressure out through spray head 62, and the burner then goes into operation, as above described. The excess oil is diverted by valve 54 to conduit 56. This system 100, as herein disclosed, also includes an air and gas or foreign fluid collecting chamber 108 connected to the top of the oil reservoir 40 in place of the plug 52, and a conduit 110 connects this collecting chamber 108 back to the combination foreign fluid collector and heavy oil feed conduit 74 going to the preheater tank from the oil supply.

Obviously the burner tube arrangements shown in en larged detail in FIGS. 3 and 4 may be connected up to either the burner system shown at 10 in FIG. 1 or at 100 in FIG. 2. Similarly, the burner tube arrangement shown at 112 in FIG. 5 may likewise be used with either system 10 or 100. In this arrangement, 112, in FIG. 5, spray head housing 114 is Welded or otherwise suitably secured at the front end of the heat exchange chamber 116 and has the spray head 62 and, if desirable, the dribble-proof valve 64 thereon. The spray head 62 is preferably detachably threaded at 115 to the spray head housing 114 thus allowing ready access to a screen filter 118 threaded therein at 120. The first pressure circuit conduit 56 connects directly into the heat exchange cham her 116 adjacent its front end, and the return conduit is connected at its rear end. The second circuit pressure feed conduit 84 or 104 extends through the oil in heat exchanger chamber 116 to the spray head housing 114.

If the oil supply is particularly dirty or apt to have heavy wax content, as it is in the oil fields, then the pressure feed conduit flushing arrangement shown in detail in FIG. 3, and incidentally in FIG. 1, would preferably be used. Also, such flushing arrangement may be preferably used with the system shown at in FIG. 2, particularly as to the foreign fluid collectors 108 and 74, which latter collector 74 also doubles as the crude oil feed pipe to the preheater tank. In the oil fields, oil is usually drawn from the ground and placed in large tanks where it is heated to separate the oil and water fractions. Thus, in the oil field separator tank there is a bottom layer of water, an intermediate layer of heavy crude oil, and a top layer of lighter crude oil. The contents of the tank are heated to effect separation of still more water from the intermediate heavy crude oil, and it is this source of heat which heretofore presented a real problem in the oil fields, and which is hereby provided by the system of FIG. 2.

The source of heat generally has been supplied by natural gas, steam or other externally developed source,

and this represents considerable cost. The present burner system is designed to use the heavy intermediate layer of the crude oil in the oil field tank and thus represents no cost to the operator since the operator is not required to pay royalty on oil burned on the site. For this use the thermostat of switch 50 is placed in the heavy crude oil layer in the separator tank.

In residential or commercial use, the particular burner tube arrangement used will depend on the need therefor, that shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 using less parts and hence being less expensive than that in FIGS. 1 and 3, and of course, the arrangement in FIG. 5 will be even less expensive.

The reservoir 40 associated with pump 38 is c0nventional construction and hence is preferred for its ready availability. However, sinc ethe reservoir serves primarily as means for heatingthe pump by the warmed oil from preheater tank 14, .it will be understood that the reservoir may be replaced by various other means For example, the conduit44 may be coiled about the pump to supply heat to the latter, or the entire pump may be submerged in an enclosing reservoir. Inany case, the pump inlet communicates with the thermosiphon circuit 44, 46.

In some small capacity systems, the heat exchange chamber 68 may be omitted, the conduit 66 from coil 58 being connected directly to return conduit 70. However, greater precision of operation is achieved by use of the heat exchange chamber.

Although this invention has been described in considerable detail, such description is intended as being illustrative rather than limiting, since the invention may be variously embodied, and the scope of the invention is to be determined as claimed.

Having thus set forth and disclosed the nature of this N invention, what is claimed is:

1. An oil burning system for heavy oils, comprising (a) a burner tube having a nozzle at its front end and communicating at its rear end with blower means for supplying air under pressure to the nozzle,

(b) oil pump means,

(c) electric motor means operatively connected to the blower means and oil pump means,

((1) an oil feed tube in the burner tube connected at its rear end to the outlet of the pump means and having at its front end an oil spray head adjacent the nozzle,

(e) an oil preheating chamber,

(f) a supply conduit for connecting the preheating chamber to a source of heavy oil,

(g) heater means for the preheating chamber for maintaining oil therein at a predetermined elevated temperature,

(h) thermosiphon circulating conduit means having a portion thereof in heat conductive relationship with the pump means for heating the latter and forming with said preheating chamber a continuous convection circuit of heated oil from the preheating chamber through said conduit means and back to said preheating chamber,

(i) the inlet of the pump means communicating with the thermosiphon conduit means, i

(j) pressure circulating conduit means connected at one end to the outlet of the pump means and at the opposite end to the preheating chamber, an intermediate portion of the pressure circulating conduit means being in heat conductive relationship with the spray head for warming the latter,

(k) electrically actuated oil valve means in the oil feed tube for controlling the feeding of oil to the spray head, the electrically actuated oil valve means having an electric circuit, and

(l) temperature-controlled switch means in the electric circuit of the oil valve means and including thermostat means arranged for influence by the temperature of oil at a point along thereturn path of the pressure circulating conduit means between the spray head and the preheating chamber.

2. The oil burning system of claim 1 wherein the intermediate portion of the pressure circulating conduit means is coiled about the spray head.

3. The oil burning system of claim 1 wherein the pressure circulating conduit means includes a heat exchange chamber within the burner tube in heat conductive relationship with the oil feed tube.

4. The oil burning system of claim 3 wherein the thermostat means is positioned in heat conductive relationship with the front end of the heat exchange chamber.

5. The oil burning system of claim 1 wherein the oil valve means in the oil feed tube is arranged to be activated to open upon position when oil adjacent the spray head in the pressure circulating conduit means reaches a predetermined elevatedtemperature; v

,6. The oil burning system of ,claim lwherein the oil feed tube includes a bypass portion communicating with the preheating chamber and the oil valve means is positioned in the bypass portion of the oil feed tube and is arranged to be activated to closed position when oil adjacent the spray head in the pressure circulating conduit means reaches a predetermined elevated temperature.

7. The oil burning system of claim 1 wherein said portion of the thermosiphon conduit means comprises an oil reservoir communicating with the inlet of the pump means.

8. The oil burning system of claim 1 including foreign fluid bleed conduit means communicating with the thermosiphon conduit means for removing foreign fluids from the oil in said conduit means.

9. The oil burning system of claim 8 wherein the foreign fluid bleed means also communicates with the supply conduit for returning removed foreign fluids to the source of heavy oil.

10. The oil burning system of claim 1 wherein the burner tube, blower means, oil pump means, motor and oil feed tube comprise components of a conventional light oil burner.

11. The oil burning system of claim 1 wherein the electric motor has an electric circuit including an electric switch controlled by a use thermostat located in the area to be heated by the system.

12. In an oil burner including a burner tube having a nozzle at its front end, an oil feed tube in the burner tube connected to a source of oil to be burned and having at its front end an oil spray head adjacent the nozzle, and electrically actuated operator means operatively connected to the oil feed tube for starting and stopping the pressure feeding of oil to the spray hea d, the actuator for the operator means having an electric circuit: the combination therewith of means for controlling the actuation of the operator means, comprising (a) pressure circulating conduit means connected at its opposite ends to a source of liquid heated substantially to the ignition temperature of the oil to be burned,

(b) an intermediate portion of said pressure circulating conduit means being in heat conductive relationship with the spray head for warming the latter, and

(c) temperature-controlled switch means in the electric circuit of the actuator for the operator means and including thermostat means arranged for influence by the temperature of the liquid in the pressure circulating conduit means at a point along the return path of the pressure circulating conduit means between the spray head and the source of liquid,

(d) the temperature-controlled switch means being operable when the temperature of the liquid adjacent the spray head is substantially at the ignition temperature of the oil to be burned, to actuate the operator means to feed oil under pressure to the spray head for ignition.

. 13. The combination of claim 12 wherein the oil burner includes oil pump means and the pressure circulating conduit means includes an intermediate portion ahead of the spray head in heat conductive relationship with the oil pump means for heating the latter.

14. The combination of claim 12 wherein the oil burner includes oil pump means and thermosiphon circulating conduit means is connected at its opposite ends to a source of liquid heated substantially to the ignition temperature of the oil to be burned, an intermediate portion of said conduit means being in heat conductive relationship with the oil pump means for heating the latter.

(References on following page) References Cite; by the Examiner 2,252,556 8/ 1941 Cmsfir 158--36 UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,275,689 3/1942 Sheppard et a1 15836 6/1932 Macrae et a1 158-36 X FOREIGN PATENTS 11/1939 Finnigan 158-36 5 156,136 9/ 1956 Sweden- 35323 158 36 JAMES W. WESTHAVER, Primary Examiner.

7/1941 Taper et a1. 15836 ROBERT A. DUA, Examiner. 

12. IN AN OIL BURNER INCLUDING A BURNER TUBE HAVING A NOZZLE AT ITS FRONT END, AN OIL FEED TUBE IN THE BURNER TUBE CONNECTED TO A SOURCE OF OIL TO BE BURNED AND HAVING AT ITS FRONT END AN OIL SPRAY HEAD ADJACENT THE NOZZLE, AND ELECTRICALLY ACTUATED OPERATOR MEANS OPERATIVELY CONNECTED TO THE OIL FEED TUBE FOR STARTING AND STOPPING THE PRESSURE FEEDING OF OIL TO THE SPRAY HEAD, THE ACTUATOR FOR THE OPERATOR MEANS HAVING AN ELECTRIC CIRCUIT: THE COMBINATION THEREWITH OF MEANS FOR CONTROLLING THE ACTUATION OF THE OPERATOR MEANS, COMPRISING (A) PRESSURE CIRCULATING CONDUIT MEANS CONNECTED AT ITS OPPOSITE ENDS TO A SOURCE OF LIQUID HEATED SUBSTANTIALLY TO THE IGNITION TEMPERATURE OF THE OIL TO BE BURNED, (B) AN INTERMEDIATE PORTION OF SAID PRESSURE CIRCULATING CONDUIT MEANS BEING IN HEAT CONDUCTIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE SPRAY HEAD FOR WARMING THE LATTER, AND (C) TEMPERATURE-CONTROLLED SWITCH MEANS IN THE ELECTRIC CIRCUIT OF THE ACTUATOR FOR THE OPERATOR MEANS AND INCLUDING THERMOSTAT MEANS ARRANGED FOR INFLUENCE BY THE TEMPERATURE OF THE LIQUID IN THE PRESSURE CIRCULATING CONDUIT MEANS AT A POINT ALONG THE RETURN PATH OF THE PRESSURE CIRCULATING CONDUIT MEANS BETWEEN THE SPRAY HEAD AND THE SOURCE OF LIQUID, (D) THE TEMPERATURE-CONTROLLED SWITCH MEANS BEING OPERABLE WHEN THE TEMPERATURE OF THE LIQUID ADJACENT THE SPRAY HEAD IS SUBSTANTIALLY AT THE IGNITION TEMPERATURE OF THE OIL TO BE BURNED, TO ACTUATE THE OPERATOR MEANS TO FEED OIL UNDER PRESSURE TO THE SPRAY HEAD FOR IGNITION. 